…in which I try to not be biased and go completely fangirly…
Screw that! It was awesome, Gilbert was awesome, everything was awesome about The Drowsy Chaperone last night at the Opera House. If you want to spend a truly delightful evening at the theater, The Drowsy Chaperone is your best chance right now.
What I love about this show is that it is completely original. It is not based on a book or a movie or a poem or anything else. 100% original. You just don’t find that in a Broadway show very often. The story is quite simple. The Man in Chair (actual character name) is “feeling blue” so decides to listen to his favorite musical from the 1920s “The Drowsy Chaperone” – in this case “drowsy” means drunk as a skunk. As Man in Chair talks directly to the audience about the musical, the show comes to live on stage. Simple as that.
What makes this story truly great is the interaction – or lack of – between the Man in Chair and the musical he is so passionately talking about. This man comes across as very depressed, slightly pathetic, and yearning for an escape from reality which this frivolous show provides for him. By the end, he is so immersed in the story that he loses sight of what is real and what is not, what is important in life and what is not.
This show is an hilarious comedy with a really endearing heart to it.
But enough about all that, I want to talk about Jonathan Crombie!
As if I haven’t already said this enough on here, Jonathan Crombie played Gilbert Blythe in the TV miniseries Anne of Green Gables 1, 2, and 3. I’ve had a huge celeb crush on the guy since I first saw Anne well over 10 years ago (I love the books too). I was uber excited to see Mr. Crombie play the role of Man in Chair. UBER excited.
And he did not disappoint. He was far and away the best part of The Drowsy Chaperone. Funny and endearing, he played MiC as a sympathetic character that you just wanted to give a hug to at the end of it all. Plus he got to sing! And dance – in a goofy way though. The Man in Chair gets all the best comedic lines as he explains to the audience what is going on in the fake show. His one-liners and quips had the audience howling with laughter. The character is on the stage the entire length of the show so there was plenty of time for me to watch Mr. Crombie instead of the real scene. I recommend you do this if you see it because he is really funny in the background of some of those numbers. 100% committed.
I think the best part of the whole night was – well, I don’t want to ruin the story for those of you who haven’t seen it but there’s one part where the Man in Chair makes a mistake and apologizes to the audience. Naturally, that meant that Crombie had to say “sorry” – TWICE! Can you believe it?!!!
Don’t get it?
In the Anne movies, my mom and I always loved when Gilbert said the word “sorry” because his Canadian accent makes the word sound more like “sooorry” than “sahrry” the way most of us pronounce it. He says it like 50 million times in those movies. So when he said it last night, twice!, my mom literally jumped in her seat. We got so freakin’ excited at that moment. It really was as if Gilbert Blythe was up there. :::sigh:::
It was just one of those perfect nights. I built this up so much in my head, I wanted to see him so badly, and it was everything I was looking for and more. I badly want to see it again and for once am happy I’m working the Opera House the next two weeks. I will be watching from the back each time, I guarantee it.
So, go see this. It was good. 🙂
I’ll be seeing tomorrow. I’ll have to bring my binoculars 🙂
Wait, Gilbert was in it?
🙂
Have fun Lauren!
Very funny Laura!
GILBERT!!!! 🙂